Dennis Edwards

Selected by the sports staff of The Anne Arundel County Sun for the week ending Dec. 8 . Only players nominated by coaches and the public are selected for the Players of the Week column. Nominations must be phoned to Pat O'Malley's 24-hour Sportsline, 647-2499, absolutely no later than 11 p.m. Sunday for inclusion in Tuesday's paper.TOP MALE ATHLETEDENNIS EDWARDSAnnapolisBoys basketballEdwards established a school record for points scored in a game with 50 on Thursday night as the defending state 4A champion Annapolis Panthers outran Parkdale of Prince George's County, 110-101.

ANNAPOLIS -- Rob Wooster bailed out fast-fading Annapolis three times in the last 31 seconds, as the Panthers hung on to edge Broadneck, 71-69, in a blistering Class 4A, Region IV final before a sellout crowd of 1,400 last night.Second-ranked and top-seeded Annapolis (21-3), which had major foul problems, rallied from six points down to build a seemingly safe 66-53 lead with 4 minutes, 15 seconds left.But No. 3-seeded and 11th-ranked Broadneck (21-4) scratched back behind 7-foot-2 center Boris Beck (22 points)

An attack on the four-minute mile is next for James Madison senior Matt Holthaus.Holthaus (Wilde Lake) broke another school record when he won the 1,000-meter race at the Patriot Games at George Mason, lowering his own mark five seconds to two minutes, 20.38 seconds. The previous week he trimmed his James Madison mile record from 4:06.60 to 4:01.22.BasketballTwo of Pfeiffer's key players are from Baltimore. Marlon Quillens (Southwestern) leads 13-4 Pfeiffer in assists (63) and is second in steals (30)

With Harris and Sons on the brink of winning its first Annapolis Men's Summer Basketball League title, a wild celebration was inevitable.On most occasions, newly crowned championship teams wait until after the game to pop the corks on the champagne.But Monday night on the sidelines of Truxtun Park's main court, Harris and Sons let loose with the bubbly with seven seconds remainingin their 53-43 triumph over defending champion F-Force.That touched off a post-game, on-court party that included many residents of the Spa Road area from which the team originated.

Two former Navy Juniors swimmers are prospering in the Big Ten.Co-captain Lisa Pastrana (Broadneck), a junior, won the 100-yard backstroke, was second in the 200 back and swam a leg on a key relay in No. 18 Penn State's 151-149 upset of No. 11 Northwestern. At the U.S. Open in Buffalo, which attracted the nation's swimming elite, Pastrana was 11th in the 100 back, 13th in the 200 and 15th in the 200 individual medley.At Ohio State, Pastrana's longtime friend and teammate in the Navy Juniors age-group program, Jamie Puromaki (Glen Burnie)

Editor's note: Beginning today, College Postcards, which tracks the performances of local high school athletes at colleges out of state, will appear each Saturday.Mark Gabriele (Calvert Hall) contributed a batch of points, and James Madison needed almost all of them.Gabriele won three individual events and swam on four championship relays as James Madison's men edged runner-up North Carolina-Wilmington, 727-715.5, in the closest championship meet in the 10-year swimming history of the Colonial Athletic Association.

This year's Annapolis High boys basketball squad boasted a swirling offense and a game pace that often neared warp speed. Its scoring average was a bloated 83 points per game.Yet one guy was the eye in the storm that was the Panthers' squad. In fact, he simply had the team's best eye for the basket when it came to marksmanship.At age 16, he's the Panthers' best-kept secret and comes in a neatly wrapped, 6-foot-5, 200-pound package labeled Rob Wooster, whose attributes include a balanced all-around game and sound fundamentals and technique.

Dennis Edwards was nicknamed "Instant Offense" for his sixth-man role at Annapolis last season.The 6-foot-5 leaper averaged 11.6 points in 16 minutes per game, as the Panthers swept to their first state championship under coach John Brady.Edwards capped his junior season by entering the Class 4A final at the three-minute mark and scoring 14 first-half points (of 22 total) on a series of spectacular baseline drives.It was a major contribution to the 106-102 victory over favored defending champion High Point, but Edwards was not satisfied.

He absolutely refused to make excuses or curse his fate. And he couldn't understand why the faces of those around him looked so grim.Annapolis boys basketball coach John Brady emerged from his team's locker room Thursday night in relatively good spirits, considering the top-seeded Panthers had just been upset by No. 4 Parkdale of Prince George's County, 62-60, in the Class 4A state semifinals at Cole FieldHouse.This was a man who did not need consoling. Not yet, at least."I'm not disappointed, I'm not depressed, I'm not down," he insisted,trying to lighten the mood.

The Dead Eye is alive again. A Baltimore Circuit Court judge gave the popular dockside saloon its liquor license back -- pending an appeal of the Liquor Board's decision to revoke it. Capt. Dan Davis lost his barkeep badge last week -- to the chagrin of a few thousand rockers, boozers and boaters -- because he had been serving drinks on the Dead Eye's deck without approval. Davis and the city, unhappily bonded through lease agreements, have been bickering for years over rent, taxes and profits from the Baltimore Yacht Basin marina and the Dead Eye, both located under the Hanover Street bridge.